The BBC is to risk controversy with a season of programmes about a white working class "under siege".

It will include a "provocative" drama about a white girl who moves into a Muslim-dominated community and starts wearing the hijab.

The film shows the girl finding calm and safety that is lacking in her home, in the Muslim faith. She is befriended by a young Asian neighbour and shocks her family by adopting Muslim dress.

The BBC described the film as "provocative and emotional" and a "tender exploration of Islam through the eyes of a child"* .

Documentaries will include Last Orders, about an "embattled" working men's club in Bradford, and All White in Barking, exploring prejudices in the multi-cultural East London community.

Politicians and race campaigners have expressed concerns about the series, with claims that the BBC should not be singling out ethnic groups.

Others fear the series could play into the hands of right wing groups like the BNP, by portraying poor white people as victims.

Conservative MP David Davies, who is a member of the home affairs select committee, attacked the BBC for coming late to the issue.

He said: "If they are under siege its partly the result of 20 to 30 years of multiculturalist policies that the BBC has been at the forefront of championing.

"The white working class have been ignored by the establishment for many decades.

"Perhaps rather late in the day they are trying to redress the balance although I don't like the idea of any ethnic group being set apart from the others."

Former BBC radio presenter and director of digital station Colourful Radio, aimed at African and Caribbean Communities, Henry Bonsu said: "There are lots of black people that have got plenty to say on this both positive and negative about the white working class.